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Weekly Challenge #4

The other evening, we were hanging out, and Alex busted out the word "postprandial," as in "Let's take a postprandial walk with Toby." NICE. (This was my reaction.)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there's nothing more attractive than hearing someone use a vocab word in regular conversation.

So here's the weekly challenge: Choose a favorite vocab word and pepper it into conversation this week. Are you game? Here are the 250 most difficult SAT words, if you'd like inspiration. Peripatetic. Innocuous. Sycophantic. Taciturn...Which word will you choose? Let's nerd out!

I regularly use large vocabulary with my freshmen students and at first I got a lot of blank stares, but now they actually enjoy looking up the words with the gigantic dictionary I have at the front of my classroom. It's been awesome to see!

Oh Jo. Did you read my mind? So need this. I don't normally comment because you have millions of comments, but I am taking this vocab list, handwriting them out, 10 at a time, on some Strathmore; then display them in my kitchen. So need to cook up some vocabulary potage in my mind whilst bustling after littles. xxoo

I've always hated "enervate" ... so tricky. But I love the words palimpsest and solipsistic (Tao of Steve, anyone?). Unfortunately, palimpsest is damn near impossible to pepper into regular conversation.

EEK, love this! My friend Jonathan and I used to play "Pretentious Word of the Day," where we'd send each other daily email with a pretentious vocabulary word, define it and use it in a sentence. it actually helped us expand our vocabulary!!

P.S. This "work in a new word" exercise used to be a regular on the Copy desk of my college newspaper. One week it was "harbinger." Somehow I've never forgotten that word—not after the giggles I got when I did see it in a headline later that week!

My favorite vocab word is "alacrity." My old boss used to use it all the time. I like the way it sounds, and that the meaning is "two toned," if you will. Alacrity = eagerness + speed. Sometimes when I'd ask him for something, he'd nod and say, "With alacrity!"

Love this! In college we would post a "word-of-the-day" on the wall in our sorority room and try to use it once per day. Did you know that the GRE exam functions on the expectation that you have learned 10,000 new vocabulary between starting and graduating college? I recall joking with my friends that our vocabulary HAD grown, but not with words that would be present on the GRE :)

Boo, whenever I do this, people laugh at me! It's friends usually, so I think it's just light teasing, and it certainly doesn't stop me from doing it, but I don't usually get a positive reaction. More a "oh, geez, there's Abby vocab-ing it up again."

Nice! I love it when people use unusual words or common words in uncommon ways, though sometimes I get teased when I try...I'm a big fan of the word "jejune." It's such a sophisticated way to say that something's childish or juvenile. :)

This was sort of one of my new years resolutions...to periodically pick a funny, obscure or SAT-level word and try and use it in a conversation (or work email, haha). Last week it was was "ship-shape"...this week is "gumption."

because suddenly I feel all kinds of smarter just knowing the word exists and, also, slightly a-dumb er er at struggling to figure out how to work it into any sort of conversation I might have today.

love this idea thanks for the SAT word list-- I am so gonna bombard that Charlie of mine when he walks in the door tonight, but my first victim will be, of course, the 3 year old. does that count, really?

Oh, how I love words. I regularly use a bigger word in conversation. Yes, it seems out of place sometimes, but I think they're fun :)

And now, I have to direct your attention to my new FAVORITE website.www.etymonline.comYou can look up (some) words and find the complete etymology of it. Language of origin, and changes over the years. It will also show you related words. I love it so much, and share it with everyone I can.

Now that's just a fab idea! As I'm not a native speaker of English I have my own ritual: every day I try to find a word in my language that I don't know the equivalent of in English. I also try to use some of these new words in my every day conversations and am jubilant every time I actually manage to use them correctly ;)

So fun ! My collegue and me did some crossword the other day at lunchtime and there was this word we didn't even knew existed, and challenged the other to use it during the day (and if we found someone who knew what it ment had to buy coffee to the other, nobody got coffee, but it was fun !)

One of my friends has an SAT vocabulary shower curtain, which seems like a fun way to incorporate new words into an everyday activity! I found them online here: http://www.tilco.com/shop/shower-curtains/sat-500-shower-curtain/

I just heard at the national childrens spelling bee they will not also have to say the definition of the word. I saw that on the TODAY show this morning. And some of the words they used as examples I didn't even know how to spell them, ha! Ls {sixteensunbuckles}

I read tons of Agatha Christie and she always is using such fun words, after looking up their meaning they are put on the fridge for my husband and I to try and use that week. Our favorite this year has been mountebank, which means a charlatan or person hoping to deceive.

Love this! The only this is, the SAT list should come with a pronunciation guide. One of my friends once tried to look smart by passing off the reading notes as his own thoughts but he pronounced hyperbole as "hi-per-bowl" and was caught out! We've never let him live it down!

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I love this post! I have come to the conclusion that my acumen of legal vocabulary is one of the reasons my husband fell in love with me or was it my effulgent spirit?! He just told me it was both! I definitely think its Hot when a person has great vocabulary skills! Its a good way to stump the haters! Haha!

Isn't it sort of pathetic but I was obsessed with learning these VERY words for my Princeton Review SAT class. I spent hours just memorizing the SAT buzz words and learning their esoteric meanings because somehow I thought a great SAT score would save me from living with my parents. Seeing those words now brings me back to those Princeton Review classes and that Summer of Words. Not surprisingly I guess, I got a perfect score on the SAT verbal. I'd forgotten. It's nice to remember these tiny victories in the face of large daily defeats.

I work with a bunch of software developers and they are all very smart. Unintentionally they will drop words on this list. And then five minutes later hit you with a nerf dart. Actually, looking through the list, I know I've heard many of them around the office recently. Anyhoo, it's made me much better at my vocab...and at dodging.

Completely agree. Nothing sexier than someone with a good vocabulary. I recently saw a photo on Pinterest of words to use more. Between you and that photo, I'm inspired to post my own 'increase your vocab post' on my blog :) Thanks!

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I love this! I haven't actually done this, but I love words. Growing up, my mom had a subscription to Reader's Digest and the first page I'd go to would be "How to Enrich Your Word Power". I might just try this thing out.